Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliceback
Ask on the DL forum.
Guy on C&R said his BIL never gets them. I asked three DL guys in the 3 years and the answer was "once a year, never, never."
They did say certain bid statuses, or periods, can hit the gold mine at times but it sounds like it's hit or miss as to predicting the future. Supposedly that's how the top guy is allegedly hitting $1 million - A350 CA and they're having manning issues as the fleet comes on line.
As far as green slips go, I’ve had 3 this year and I’m around the midpoint in my catagory. A320 Captain. I’m a commuter so It’s not worth it to me for a 1 day trip to go to NYC and back or I could have had more. It’s not only for the senior guys but they do go in seniority order. After the more senior guy gets 1, he can’t get another one until everyone below him, who wants one, has gotten one. The local guys can do much better because most of them happen on short notice...2-3 hours from sign in, but occasionally if they’re really short of pilots, they can be assigned up to a day prior....that’s when guys like me start hearing the phone ring. I set in my preferences that I need 7 hours notice so a senior guy could, possibly be awarded GS#3 when I haven’t had one because the report on that trip is 2 hours from when they start covering the trip. I read the post on our board about the misconceptions about the pay disparity between our groups. I would say our 12 year NB Captains are averaging $280-$320K and our WB guys are probably averaging $340-370K after profit sharing for 2018. I’m pushing the higher end of NB because I worked my tail off last summer and the 3 premium pay trips I worked this year.
The guys making close to 7 figures are a crazy anomaly that occurred on the A350 because of several factors from what I remember and understand. First, we took two or three deliveries early because someone else had cancelled some orders. So we were undermanned. We have a mechanism called green slip with conflict which means they pay you for your original trip plus the trip you work. So assume you’ve got a 9 day trip on Monday but they desperately need to cover a 9 day trip on Saturday. If you’ve put in for a GSWC, they call you and you go to work two days early, but get paid for both trips at straight pay. Some pilots were able to do this the entire month and basically get paid for their schedule plus the trips they worked so figure 150 hours a month.
Also, the initial cadre of LCA’s came from different fleets. Some were too junior to hold the catagory in seniority order so they couldn’t hold a line during bidding. As a reserve LCA, in an extremely short staffed catagory, they were buying trips from Captains for the LCA’s to conduct training. If you were the lucky senior captain (I say senior captain because I’m assuming a 4 pilot augmented flight with 2 Ca’s and 2 FO’s), you get paid to stay home. If you put in a green slip now, you get double pay for the trip you work plus straight pay for the trip you got bought off, thus, you’re making over $1000 per hour and assuming a 6 day trip with a minimum of 32 hours, you’re making $32 K. Most of the A350 flying is to Asia so I know the trips are higher credit than that and I think our top rate is $338 but can’t remember.
Our A350 guys ended up in a perfect storm for the past two years and some really made bank but don’t think our wide body guys average $600-700K year in and year out. But if you guys can achieve that this contract cycle, and we can pattern off that, you’ll never buy yourself another beer in a bar if I’m around.
Good luck. I hope this made sense.
08-17-2020
